I have listened to readings from Ecclesiastes that began ‘Vanity of vanity, the preacher said’. Meals are taken in silence, usually accompanied by a recording of a sermon over the Tannoy. That is, as I discover in my 24 hours as a nun, a lot of running around to be done in the pursuit of Godliness. They celebrate mass every day and pray the Divine Office five times a day, the singing accompanied by the Reverend Mother or Sister Clare Chantal on the zither. The nuns rise at 5.50 in summer, for private prayer and meditation before the first service, Lauds, at 7.35 am. Most of the time, though, I am just trying not to make a noise. Well, I am not really trying to make myself more pleasing to God by becoming a bride of Christ, as nuns are wont to do - although, to be frank, I’m not exactly against making a few lucrative deposits in the Bank of The Holy Hereafter either. Some do it just for the peace and quiet others to reassess life’s priorities or perhaps as the first step in becoming a nun themselves. Retreatants can stay for a day, a week or longer, to experience what life is like as a nun. Is not the axe-wielding nuns, nor the acuity of their myriad skills or their fondness for TV detectives, but that they are the only contemplative closed order in the world who invite women to live with them as ‘retreatants’, joining in their services within the heart of the monastery enclosure. Yet perhaps the most remarkable features of the Monastery of the Visitation Some nuns had jobs before they took their vows of Solemn Profession they were teachers, nurses and midwives.One nun was a doctor another worked in a bank in the City another stacked shelves in a supermarket. ‘Virginity is not the be all and end all here,’ is how the Reverend Mother puts it, although I think it rather helps if the husband in question has died, rather than been divorced. Some of the nuns here have been married and have children outside. Not for the first time since arriving, I experience a surge of admiration for the Salesian nuns who live and work here the capable, kindly sisters of this worldwide order, founded in Annecy 400 years ago and who celebrate She really is a keen Pope watcher.’įrom my window, I can also see a pile of neatly chopped logs. ‘And Sister Paul (after the saint) Miriam is the chosen one: she is going to see the Pope when he comes. ‘Sister Mary Gabriel loves golf,’ says Reverend Mother. Some sports events and The Proms are also essential viewing, along with any titbits about the impending UK visit from the Pope. The nuns are a silent order, with brief periods for talk after lunch and supper but they read newspapers and love to watch Poirot and Miss Marple videos during recreation periods. ‘We do live behind a grille, but we have to be in touch with the world so that we can pray for it.’ ‘Isn’t it exciting? That will bring more people to prayer, it really will,’ says Reverend Mother. They have even heard of the singing Benedictine nuns from the South of France, who have just signed a major recording deal with Universal Music. While the nuns who live there rarely go out, they are not as detached from the real world as one might imagine. The nuns’ Victorian red brick monastery was originally built as a mansion for a wealthy businessman. ‘She is the webmistress,’ says the Reverend Mother, Sister Jane Margaret. Sister Mary de Sales is the nun responsible for this surprising interaction with the modern world. Here in this lush fold of East Sussex, the Monastery of the Visitation at Waldron is almost entirely self-sufficient, though the 13 nuns who live here, whose ages range from 35 to nearly 100, do supplement nature’s bounty with a pragmatic weekly shop at Tesco online.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |